Posted on 12/12/2013 12:59:05 PM PST by DouglasKC
How do you know you're saved?
Imagine you arrive at a most important banquet that's hosted by Christ Himself. After all--you're a Christian. Picture coming to His home and walking right up to the door. Perhaps you're a little surprised that the door is closed and you're shut outside. But not to be deterred, you knock and knock. No response, no reaction. So you call out, "Jesus open the door, Lord it's me." Still, no response, no reaction. At long last, you hear Jesus' voice and He says, "I never knew you!" What a devastating and shocking situation in which to find yourself.
(Excerpt) Read more at ucg.org ...
Yup; but to WHOM was he writing?
Of COURSE it is!
...if you call yourself a Jew...
If YOU can show a REQUITREMENT that it be done, then...
Ok; snippet away...
Go and sell your possessions, give it to the poor THEN come and follow me.
“Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but they died;
this is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat it and not die.
I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.”
The Jews quarreled among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us (his) flesh to eat?”
Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you.
Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day.
For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink
Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him.
Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me.
This is the bread that came down from heaven. Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died, whoever eats this bread will live forever.”
These things he said while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum
Then many of his disciples who were listening said, “This saying is hard; who can accept it?”
Since Jesus knew that his disciples were murmuring about this, he said to them, “Does this shock you?
What if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before?
It is the spirit that gives life, while the flesh is of no avail. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and life.
But there are some of you who do not believe.” Jesus knew from the beginning the ones who would not believe and the one who would betray him.
And he said, “For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by my Father.”
As a result of this, many (of) his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him
Jesus then said to the Twelve, “Do you also want to leave?”
Simon Peter answered him, “Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.
We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God.”
Jesus answered them, “Did I not choose you twelve? Yet is not one of you a devil?”
He was referring to Judas, son of Simon the Iscariot; it was he who would betray him, one of the Twelve.” [John 6: 49-71]
You’re making a nice Jacob of yourself ...
The church in Rome which most scholars say was composed of jewish Christians and gentile Christians.
But you ignored the rest of my post and I'm still curious so I"ll ask the question again:
Are you really making the point that Christian can and should covet?
Paul said:
1Ti_2:7 for which I was appointed a preacher and an apostle—I am speaking the truth in Christ and not lying—a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.
Paul also said:
Rom 7:7 What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, "YOU SHALL NOT COVET."
Rom 7:8 But sin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all manner of evil desire. For apart from the law sin was dead.
Rom 7:9 I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died.
Rom 7:10 And the commandment, which was to bring life, I found to bring death.
Rom 7:11 For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it killed me.
Rom 7:12 Therefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good.
My response was a paraphrase of Paul. I'll assume that you didn't recognize that. Or do you not consider the letters of Paul inspired scripture?
Paul wrote to Timothy:
2Ti_1:6 Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands.
So we know he practiced laying on of hands to give God's spirit. And he says twice in other letters:
1Co 4:16 Therefore I urge you, imitate me.
1Co 11:1 Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ.
1Co 11:2 Now I praise you, brethren, that you remember me in all things and keep the traditions just as I delivered them to you.
Since it was the practice of Paul and Paul was a prominent Christian who established many Christian churches...and since Paul was visited by and learned from Christ...I would say we're on pretty firm ground by taking his word and example on it.
Try it a third time.
For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, "YOU SHALL NOT COVET."
Good point!!
1 Corinthians 1:17
For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel—not with wisdom and eloquence, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.
I'll take that as a compliment...
So then your answer is that it is NOT acceptable for a Christian to covet if I'm reading you right.
Christians use the law as a check. We use the written law as a guide to tell us if we're sinning...or better worded, to tell us when we're not letting Christ live through us and instead are letting our own nature live.
Are you making the point that you don't believe the Lord asks us to be baptized based on your interpretation of this one scripture?
I’m looking at this and thinking, “This thread’s still going? Are you kidding me?”
He was talking to a specific person at that time.
Here's a good clue: when were Cornelius and his household saved? These are questions that you answer in your heart, not in a discussion or a bible study. But if you study the Bible with an heart open to God's ministering Spirit within your human spirit, you will come away from the mistaken notion that Salvation is something you only receive at the end of 'the race'. To believe Salvation comes only at the end of 'the race' is to believe God will make good on His promises only if you are good enough to warrant them. That isn't Grace, that's wages. Whereas God, in Jesus, explained the simplicity to the Pharisees, sweeping away their same effort to make God's Grace dependent upon their doing a lifetime of 'phylacteries'. And if you need more, look carefully at the story Jesus told of the man hiring folks to work, and the apportioning of payment to those workers. How was it that some who had been 'on the job' for so short a time were paid the same as those who had been working from the start? That story is one too often twisted to focus upon work rather than Grace as Jesus taught it.
Are you disparaging Jacob ? He was one of three in the Scriptures named as perfect (tam singular, tamim plural). Noah, Job, and Abraham were also called so. Disparaging Jacob is unwise at best.
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